Definitions
by skywalker05
Summary: Endorphins, serotonin, and lots and lots of luck. Each member of the ME2 crew defines love a little differently. A oneshot ensemble piece.


A/N: This was written for the contest prompt "Love" over at the BioWare club on deviantArt. Hopefully you'll be able to tell what's going on well enough simply from the format...but don't ask me_ why_ Legion asked EDI what love is. Who knows.  


* * *

_Definitions _

**Subject 1: EDI**

Love. Noun. Various emotions ranging from strong endearment to sexual interest. From the proto-Germanic verb _lubo…_would you like further information?

I recommend you direct your query to the crew.

**Subject 2: Tali'Zorah vas Normandy**

When you go out on your Pilgrimage, you aren't supposed to come back untouched. You're supposed to learn about the rest of the world to benefit your people. Trying to find out more about the geth was what I thought would be the best way to do that.

My father had a picture of a house that he'd show me when I was younger. He'd say, "this is where we'll live, Tali'Zorah. We won't have to worry about suit environments then."

So, I fight because I love my father, and because through him, I've come to be able to love the rest of the galaxy too. And because I love the picture of that house enough to want it to be more than a piece of paper.

**Subject 3: Garrus Vakarian**

You know when you've been living with, serving with, someone for a long time, you know all their little quirks and how they aren't always going to agree with you. They're standing in front of the person you've got in the sights of your sniper rifle and they just won't move to let you take the shot. They're protecting the person you've been wanting revenge on for a really, _really _long time. But you just can't shoot 'em.

It's like that.

O-kay, maybe that's a situation it's a bit hard to understand. I, ah, I'll come up with something else. You don't have to put that on the recording.

**Subject 4: Professor Mordin Solus**

Endorphins. Testosterone. Estrogen. Serotonin. And lots and lots of luck.

**Subject 5: Justicar Samara**

Oh yes, I loved my third daughter. Love is a many-faceted, many-colored thing. But I am Justicar, and that is a calling in the blood. When blood wars with itself…the body sickens.

Leave me.

**Subject 6: Jacob Taylor**

_Hugo Gernsback. _I thought my father was dead for ten years, and then that name comes back to haunt me in an entirely different way. When my father left, I looked up the name of the ship out of curiosity. Gernsback wasn't a soldier—he was a _publisher_. Put out magazines. That wasn't quite as…noble as I expected. Turns out my father wasn't either. But this Hugo, they're still awarding books honors with his name back on Earth. He wrote about spaceships and stuff before we had any.

My father admitted, at the end, that he wasn't ready for command. That what he did was wrong. And he flew away in one direction and I went in another.

Yeah, I loved him. But I think I mourned him too. I considered him dead years ago. Seeing his face…it was like a husk, one of those geth dead men. Maybe he was recognizable underneath somewhere.

**Subject 7: Jeff Moreau **

Love? Love is a shot to the knees of a target 120 meters away—okay, no? You gotta really be _cultured_ to remember that stuff anymore. But, really, in the military, it's being willing to die for someone. To go down with the ship. That's all I know about it. If it's got something to do with roses and dinners and _dancing_, I'm not the one to ask.

**Subject 8: Miranda Lawson **

I knew from very young that I was better than other people. That's how he said it, my father; not just 'you're genetically modified', but, 'you're made better than other people'. He gave me perspective.

Oriana was 2.0. And it was easy for me to love her. There was no need for jealousy; we respected each other, knew that we were both meant for something great. We were _built _for it.

Shepard was always the great hero. When I found the body I almost expected signs of genetic tampering already there, but no—pure human. We didn't tamper with that—couldn't. Mostly, we rebuilt what Alchera had taken away.

I couldn't let my father keep Oriana as a pet because I loved her. Saving her may have been Shepard's doing, but telling her I was alive was something I did on my own—and it helped me respect myself.

**Subject 9: Grunt**

Hmm…Food. Shooting things. The look in those poor dupes' eyes after they thought I couldn't pass the Rite. Hehehe. I loved that.

**Subject 10: Thane Krios**

The gods teach us that body and soul are separate things, the body just a tool of the greater force of the mind. I believe this is true. But the body and mind feel unified sometimes, feel of an accord. So it was with Irikah.

** Subject 11: Jack**

We thought we didn't need love. Had done well enough without it. But the people who say that they don't are usually the ones you find crying in a corner after a day of trying to look tough. Everybody needs love—it's part of being a living, fleshy thing. But what people to do to get love is not half as interesting as what people will do to avoid getting hurt.

**Recap: Legion **

Data distributing to subroutines. Collating. Collating.

Answers indicate many variant focuses, none of which conflict. Indicates multiple definitions. Further data required but likely to prompt violent response from certain individuals. Curious.


End file.
